Princess..CdB is a pruning group 3..which means she blooms on the new vines produced in a growing season..go ahead and hard prune her and don't forget to fertilize with either some rose fertilizer or tomato fertilizer now too..I wouldn't advise planting a pruning group 3 and a 2 together...it will end up to be a pruning nightmare....I treated my "Ramona" as a pruning group 3 the first pruning season just to let her get a good rootsystem and now am letting her be a 2 and she is growing by leaps and bounds...Maybe someone else can address treating her like a 3 forever for that I don't know...Jeanne

I have not pruned my 2's as 3's every single year but there are some I've done every other year or more such as Daniel Deronda with excellent results. I am in a much warmer zone than the OP.

Pruning 2's as 3's will just delay blooming. Probably resulting in Ramona blooming with CdB instead of long before. CdB is a larger, more vigorous vine than Ramona...

According to this website
http://www.clematis.com.pl/wms/wmsg.php/321.html&plant_number=279
Ramona can be treated like a 3.

Thanks Jeanne-- When you planted your Ramona the first time and treated it like a group 3. How did it flower the first year?

I'm not Jeanne but my Ramona flowered better than it ever had before after I hard pruned it last year. This year it has even more buds but I'm going to let it flower and then prune it. Last year I pruned before it flowered.

I hard pruned mine last year and this year it has shot up more vines and is about 5 feet tall...was LOADED full of blooms this year...and is still blooming...pruning group 2's appreciate this..I do know a person in New Zealand that hard prune their 2's every year..Jeanne

it would be really nice to be able to treat ramona like type 3 since ramona was one of my first clematis and it was planted it too close to type 3 hagley hybrid. i keep having to train them away from each other!

however, i am wondering whether this technique will yield the same results in the shorter summers of zone 5/6 ... anyone?

The only way to know is to try pruning it as a type III and seeing the results. Everyone in zone 5 doesn't garden under the same conditions and microclimates.

You can also try pruning Hagley Hybrid as a 2. I have HH and have NOT hard pruned it every year and most likely will not. It is just not that vigorous for me and I want coverage on the fence where it is.

I would not worry about keeping them apart. The colors would mingle nicely.

You could hard prune both of them every other year if they need it.

Clematis pruning is all about bloom time and height and not about the life of the plant. They don't care when or if you prune them except doing it hard the first couple of years really makes a huge difference in getting them off to a good start for root and stem development.

I have H.F. Young - which is a light prune Group 2 and I always hard prune her every year. This year which is now her 3rd year - she has come up with sooo many stems - I couldnt believe it! Anyways I do think that with some varieties of light prune like for instance Proteus - you would definately have to light prune because if you do not you would miss out on the double flower it produces in the first bloom of the year. But I would think with Ramona - you should be fine. Worse come to worse - you would cut her down hard and find out for sure what will happen this year - then next year you will know for sure! I also have Ramona and have always treated her as a light prune - until last year when she got hit with wilt - then she was cut to the ground. So this year she is starting to show her head once again. Lynn

hmm that is interesting. i will definitely prune ramona hard next spring.

i have the same experience with hagley hybrid as you buyorsell888. lots of nice soft pink blooms but not a very vigorous climber, as compared to ramona. and i too am trying to cover a pretty long fence!

Thanks so much everyone. This has been very helpful. I also have been doing some research and on www.clematisnursery.com they stress that it is very important to prune all new plantings of clematis to 18-24" the first year regardless of their pruning group. This is supposed to insure that the roots and top growth develop proportionately. They say it is particularly important for group "B" which are notoriusly reluctant to fatten up at the base.They go on to say that 2 or more years of this treatment may be necessary for the plant to develop a satisfactory framework. So from what I've also read here,I think I will hard prune Ramona and see what happens.Thanks again----princesspeony

Hard pruning all Clems first year or two or even three cannot be stressed enough!

You can also hard prune them anytime they are scraggly.
Pruning invigorates them. Encourages new growth. It is a good thing.